Beilue: Brothers patent homemade yard tool

Duane Sanders demonstrates a tool he and brother James Sanders invented to quickly and effectively remove sprinkler heads. The brothers patented the Sprinkler Removal Tool and hope to sell it nationwide.

About nine years ago, James Sanders got a call from his brother, Duane. He had an idea, but needed his brother’s skill. Duane came by with a piece of pipe and a sprinkler head.

“I said, ‘Can we fix this where this pipe can grip a sprinkler head and I can take it out without having to dig it up, because I’m thinking of replacing all my sprinkler heads,” Duane asked.

About 1½ hours of tinkering later, they had themselves a tool. They went and tried it on a sprinkler in James’ front yard, and — voila! — it worked.

“Jim can do about anything as far as metal fabrication,” Duane said. “It was a project, and at the time, it was not designed to be an invention. It was just something to help me around the house.”

Friends and neighbors thought it a very useful tool when replacing a balky sprinkler head — there was no digging, no tearing up the soil. They thought he and his brother were on to something and encouraged them to patent and market their invention.

Still, it remained off their radar for about eight years. Then a little more than a year ago, Duane was at a muffler shop and watched how a piece of exhaust pipe was formed and fitted. The Sanders’ homemade removal tool only fit his size of sprinkler head, but what if it could fit all heads?

“When I saw them do it, it just clicked in my head,” Duane said. “I said, ‘Bingo, that’s it.’”

Duane went back to his brother, Dr. Gadget. They experimented with a wood lathe, getting a tool die to grip some PVC pipe like they had envisioned. And there was the infancy of a tool that can swiftly remove and replace sprinkler heads from 1¾ to 2¼ inches.

That’s when the SRT — Sprinkler Removal Tool — began to take flight. That’s when the Sanders brothers knew they had something more than a just another homemade creation to help them do a job around the house.

Working with a patent attorney over the last nine months, the SRT recently received a utility patent, which is a step above a design patent. Basically, there’s nothing like it in the world.

“It’s the desired patent,” James said. “It’s a patent that anyone else who comes along has to compare this to. It’s the cream of the crop.”

An SRT primer: place the pipe over the broken sprinkler head so it grips the head. Unscrew the head aided by a half-inch handle. Remove the head from the SRT with a back and forth motion.

The handle also serves as an alignment tool to line up the threads of a new sprinkler head with the riser pipe and keeps dirt out of the riser. Tighten the sprinkler with the SRT, which also can adjust the spray pattern. All the while, the soil and grass are undisturbed.

Duane, a retirement investment specialist, has replaced as many as 30 sprinkler heads in 1½ hours, or in a video, eight in 8:20. James, a disabled veteran who uses a wheelchair, can remove and replace a head in two minutes, the time the brothers said is standard.

They went public with the SRT on July 4 with a demonstration booth at the Fair on the Square in Canyon.

“It’s amazing that two guys from Amarillo at the Square in Canyon were introducing a tool literally to the world,” Duane said.

They have made sales wherever convenience met opportunity. James sold one to a landscaper working on a sprinkler at a fast-food restaurant in Canyon, and to his eye doctor who watched their website — pciability.org — at an appointment.

“One gentleman was in his front yard with a big patch of dirt cut out,” Duane said. “When I showed him what the SRT could do, you could see the look on his face change. He said, ‘Son, you made my life a lot easier.’”

In August, Canyon Independent School District bought two as a bigger SRT for commercial use was made. Around the same time, James approached Jeremy Mosley, manager of Ace Hardware in Canyon, about their invention. Here, take one home.

“By using one, I knew I wanted one,” Mosley said. “I ended up buying one, and got with my bosses to get it in the store. To me, it really does the job.”

The SRT has been in the Canyon store for two months. Last week, after a demonstration to the West Texas A&M University grounds department, James sold 10.

The Sanders brothers will be demonstrating their invention Friday through Sunday at the grand opening of Ace Hardware at 4705 S. Western St.

Watching them use their creation, it’s simple, fast and clean. It may one day make them a lot of money.

“It’s another tool for the tool shed,” Duane said. “It’s designed for a specific purpose like the hoe, rake or shovel. You wouldn’t use it all the time, but when you need it, you got it and it does a tremendous job.”

Jon Mark Beilue is a Globe-News columnist. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com. His blog appears on amarillo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jonmarkbeilue.